Gurnard in kind conditions in early April

Excitement and anticipation. Two of our most amazing emotions as human beings I think. Two gifts of creation, that in childhood enter every day of our lives. But, as we get older, less so it seems. It takes something a little special to get the flutters back in the stomach. Such a shame. Why shouldn’t we wake up with the buzz that used to come from say, going out on a boat in the morning. What is it that takes this away from us? The pressures of living in modern society I should imagine. Stresses weighing on the shoulders. The requirement to work, work, work, every day. Bills… life... living up to expectations… Why didn’t we know about this when we were young? In fairness, my father used to tell me very often indeed. “Enjoy it while your young”. It’s just I never worked out what “it” was until I made It past thirty years…

Bass arrived much earlier than expected this far east...

I think it is fair to say however, that for Bruce and I recent events have most definitely rekindled both emotions. Ever since we clapped eyes on BIF1 in Wales, already a month ago, we have looked forward to getting to know her. But she must come as a coded vessel, otherwise she is useless to us. We originally planned to not have an “A” frame, to maximise rod stroke space for fly anglers. Unfortunately, due to needing to have a radar reflector to meet coding requirements, we had to have one. This had to be made, and as such delayed the delivery, from last Monday, to next Tuesday.

Capt Bruce showing he can fish as well as helm.

So how do we spend this time. Kicking our heels? Absolutely not. Every day we can get afloat on “Scooby” is yet more time practicing what we want to offer our customers. March was a write off. To be expected really. April was kinder, enabling us to get out half a dozen times or more.. Squid were very prevalent, as were the plaice to Isomes. We had one good hit of bass, with 25 fish inshore, and most trips we found some bass, five or six per trip perhaps, but some good ones, as you can see from the picture below.

8lb plus of early season silver...

And then, towards the end of April, the may rot came, and fishing has pretty much shut down for floating operations. As I write this, you need to be past six miles to find anything clear enough to consider fishable on artificials. Likely to be around for another few weeks as well, although we will still be taking BIF1 afloat when she arrives, to fill up her GPS with all our favourite spots. And some days, wind direction will allow a break in the slime I am sure. Time will tell. And it is not that all fishing has stopped. I am quite busy with clients, with the same dilemma. And my location gives me great access to four very good tidal rivers, which do offer chances of avoiding the algae, and also offer some very good bass indeed. Such as this one my client Michael Wood caught today, weighing in at 7lb 4oz.

Michael with his excellent early season river fish.

All being well, the next blog update will be to announce the arrival of BIF1, at the same time as Bruce and I conclude our training, and send off our certificates for the all important commercial endorsement. This plan, seems to be coming together. And with it, hopefully, we can return to you also, the feelings of excitement and anticipation. Hopefully, these will return the night before you are booked to come out fishing on BIF1…